Dongola

19.1730.47Koordinaten: 19 ° 10 ' N, 30 ° 28' O

Dongola (Arabic دنقلا Dongola; Sudanese- Arabic: Dungulā, alternative spelling Dongola, Dungula, Dongla, rarely Donggola or Dongola ) is the capital of the Sudanese state of al- Schamaliyya. Sometimes it is also called New Dongola, to distinguish it from Old Dongola.

Location

The city is located in the center of Nubia, about 200 kilometers south of Lake Nubia, the Sudanese part of Lake Nasser and 500 kilometers north- west of Khartoum, on the left bank of the Nile.

The road up the Nile up to the branch in Abu Dom and continue south to Khartoum is paved, as since 2010 the road on the eastern side of the Nile about Abri to Wadi Halfa. A Nile bridge two kilometers north of the city was completed in autumn 2009. Another asphalt road leads through the desert east to Karima. The Dongola Airport is 10 kilometers to the west.

The 275 km long reaches of the Nile between Dongola and Karima is navigable until after 1980 reversed passenger ships on this route. Because of the cataracts the trip by boat to Wadi Halfa is difficult at low water level not possible.

Population

For Dongola 13,563 inhabitants ( 2012 calculation ) can be specified. The population is made up of Nubians and Sheygya ( Shaqiya - ) Arabs, whose settlement center is located further south, together. Within the Nubians colonizing the north to the 3rd cataract group of Dongolesen can be distinguished.

Population development:

History

Dongola is a second name for the early medieval Christian kingdom Makuria, whose capital was the 80 km river upstream Old Dongola. The present city of Dongola was founded in 1812 by a group of Mamelukes, who had fled from Egypt from the persecution of Muhammad Ali Pasha. The French rule over Egypt, which was terminated in 1801, weakened the power of the Mamluks. In March 1811, the entire leadership of the Mamluks was killed by the Ottoman viceroy in a massacre, pursued their families and looted their homes. The remaining Mamluks died in 1812 in an expedition to Upper Egypt his son Ibrahim Pasha, only a few managed to escape on the third cataract addition, further to the south, where they set up camp on the Nile. This is what the name of the town refers in the 19th century: Dongola al Urd ( " the camp ").

The third son of the Egyptian ruler, Ismail Kamil Pasha, came in 1820 to the south before, took the Mamlukensiedlung Dongola and ended in 1821 the rule of the Funj Sultanate. The Mamluks had scattered before the arrival of the Egyptians, most had fled to Shendi. Dongola was singled out as being contributed the Sheygya, one described as a freedom- loving and militant Arab ethnic group south of the city futile resistance. Before the robbers of Sheygya the Orient traveler Jean Louis Burckhardt had feared, who had traveled 1814 Dongola. The aim of the advancing Egyptian army was off by the Mamluk possibly the danger posed to win control of the caravan trade and access to Sudanese gold mines, as well as slaves for the Egyptian army. In this campaign, Old Dongola was completely destroyed. By 1885 Dongola was one of the four central provinces ( Mudiriya ) to Khartoum for Turkish- Egyptian Sudan.

The new Dongola was constructed and attached to the plans of the scientist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. He took part in an expedition of Baron Minotuli 1821 to 1823, which continued to the Red Sea through the Libyan desert and up the Nile on Dongola. Prince of Pueckler 1837 traveled up the Nile, where he had to make the journey from Wadi Halfa on the arduous overland because of the low water level in April and " despite the many crocodiles almost daily " bathed in Dongola in the Nile. The onward journey was by boat.

Mid-19th century had watered ( Sakiya ) channels and the place around 6000 inhabitants, situated on the Nile River fields were waterwheels. Until around 1900 Dongola had grown to 8000-10000 inhabitants. In the 19th century Dongola was on a pilgrimage route that ran from Darfur in a direct line through the desert, at Dongola crossed the Nile and further east to the port of Suakin to the ship to Jeddah led. Other Muslims who went on Hajj traveled from Dongola down the Nile and joined in Cairo Egyptian pilgrims.

During the last years of the Turkish- Egyptian rule over the Sudan should be under British influence in the 1870s a railway from Egypt to Dongola and on to El Fasher in Darfur are being built. The few of Wadi Halfa completed along the Nile until 1896 kilometers were expanded to 54 kilometers of track and 1905 already set.

The later Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad was born in 1844 near Dongola. The city was moved from 1885 to 1896 under his rule ( Mahdiya ). For the reconquest of the Sudan railway served as a logistical requirement; the Anglo- Egyptian forces of the Dongola expedition under Kitchener penetrated along the Nile and defeated in June 1896 in the Battle of Firket an army of the Mahdi. The division under Archibald Hunter then succeeded in taking Dongola. Hunter was until 1899 governor of Dongola and at the same time commander of the local border guards. Until Dongola could be introduced transported on the Nile supplies. From here, the Anglo -Egyptian troops entered the decisive battle before to Omdurman, which was held in September 1898.

Cityscape

The wealthy through trade and agriculture town is bordered by a wide green belt from from irrigated fields of the Nubian desert. The irrigation channels are fed instead of the earlier, driven through the circuit cattle Sakiyas of numerous small diesel pumps with Nile water. Besides date palms citrus, vegetables and cereals are grown (wheat). In the fields and sheep and cattle are kept in pens.

A few 100 meters from the ferry pier extends the grid pattern city center, which is separated by a strip of arable land from the Nile. South of the bustling market district is a residential area with partially traditional houses made of rammed earth.

Three kilometers away on the east bank foundations of the temple of Kawa were excavated.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Muhammad Ahmad
• Jafar Muhammad at - Numairi

Others

The Dongola gerbil ( Gerbillus dongolanus ) is known only from Dongola.